Walter Wolf Racing

wolf

Surname	Walter Wolf Racing
Companies	Walter Wolf Racing Ltd.
Company headquarters	Great Britain
Team boss	Walter Wolf
statistics
First Grand Prix	Brazil 1976
Last Grand Prix	USA 1979
Race driven	60
Constructors' championship	0
Drivers World Championship	0
Race wins	3
Pole positions	1
Fastest laps	2
Points	79

Walter Wolf Racing ( Wolf for short) was a British - Canadian motorsport racing team that was active in Formula 1 from 1976 to 1979 . The racing team had its roots in the British team Frank Williams Racing Cars , whose successor he was. The owner was the Austro - Canadian entrepreneur Walter Wolf .

history

Team formation: Williams + Hesketh = Wolf

Walter Wolf, who made his fortune in the oil business, began in 1975 to forge plans to join Formula 1 as a racing team owner. In autumn 1975 Wolf took over numerous technical components of the Hesketh Racing team , which was in the process of being dissolved , including a Hesketh 308C racing car and individual parts for two other vehicles. In October 1975, the Italian designer Giampaolo Dallara established a connection between Wolf and Frank Williams , who had been running his own Formula 1 racing team since 1969 and, after several unsuccessful years, was faced with economic ruin.

In December 1975 Walter Wolf took over the majority stake in Frank Williams Racing Cars and settled the debts of the racing team as well as the personal liabilities of Frank Williams. In this way, Wolf combined the Hesketh components with the Williams racing team. Frank Williams, who was known as the “starving Formula 1” in the mid-1970s, ran the day-to-day business as an employee and received an annual salary of £ 25,000.

The newly formed racing team made its debut in 1976 in the Formula 1 World Championship. In the first three races of the year, the racing team was still registered under the previous name Frank Williams Racing Cars; from the Spanish Grand Prix on , the company was reported as Walter Wolf Racing. From 1976 onwards, the racing team consistently led most of the statistics as Wolf and not (anymore) as Williams.

1976

Williams FW05: A Hesketh 308C in Wolf livery

In its debut season, the team competed with three Williams FW05 vehicles . Contrary to what the name suggests, these cars were not designed by Williams, and they had nothing to do with previous Iso-era models. Rather, it was the Hesketh 308C manufactured in 1975, which had been reworked by Patrick Head in the winter of 1975/76 . The revision was generally not considered to be very effective. It made the car "not better, just heavier".

On the driver side, there was a lot of movement in the team. Regular driver was initially Jackie Ickx , whose mission was supported by Marlboro with £ 100,000. Ickx finished four times. His best result was seventh place in the Spanish Grand Prix . This was also the team's best result this year. The race result contrasted with four missed qualifications by the Belgian.

From the German Grand Prix , Ickx was replaced by Arturo Merzario . An unusual incident occurred at his home race, the Italian Grand Prix , in Monza : Arturo Merzario finished the qualification well behind in 28th place and was therefore not eligible to start. After qualifying, however, it turned out that the drivers Jochen Mass , James Hunt (both McLaren ) and John Watson ( Penske ) had used illegal petrol. As a result, their qualifying times were canceled, so that Merzario moved up to the 25th qualifying place and was now eligible to start. Williams then withdrew Merzario's report, so that John Watson slipped back into the starting grid and was able to take part in the race from the end of the field. In motorsport literature there is a view that Merzario's withdrawal was due to a financial contribution from Penske to Arturo Merzario. Merzario did not finish in any of his appearances for Williams.

The second car, which was not used consistently, was driven by five drivers in succession:

• Renzo Zorzi was registered for the opening race ; he was still driving last year's Williams FW04 .
• Michel Leclère competed in the following seven races up to the French Grand Prix with the second FW05.
• For the North American races at the end of the season, Walter Wolf initially signed Chris Amon . Amon took part in qualifying training for the Canadian Grand Prix , but was so badly injured in an accident that he was unable to take part in the race himself. Amon also did not compete in the subsequent race in the USA.
• For the US Grand Prix , Wolf registered the Australian Warwick Brown once , who had the only Formula 1 outing of his career here.
• Masami Kuwashima was finally entered for the last race of the year in Japan . However, the Japanese did not take part in the qualification training or the race: After his sponsors had withdrawn before the event began, the second car was given to Hans Binder at short notice .

During the 1976 season, Wolf increasingly saw Frank Williams as responsible for the lack of sporting success. On the other hand, Frank Williams was not satisfied with his position as an employee. After the Argentine Grand Prix in January 1977, Wolf and Frank Williams split. Walter Wolf then continued to run the racing team on his own from the 1977 season , while Williams and Patrick Head founded a new racing team called Williams Grand Prix Engineering , with which he also competed in Formula 1 from 1977.

1977

Wolf WR1

As a team manager undertook the Wolf at Lotus retired Peter Warr , of Harvey Postlethwaite with the development of the first chassis ( Wolf WR1 commissioned). In addition, Wolf was able to poach the fast Jody Scheckter from Tyrrell , who initially remained the team's only driver. The season started with a bang: Scheckter won the first race the young team competed in - the Argentine Grand Prix . The rest of the season was also extremely successful: Two more victories followed (in Monaco and Canada ) as well as a few podiums and in the end Scheckter was surprisingly vice world champion behind the Austrian Niki Lauda in the superior Ferrari .

1978

Wolf WR 6 from 1978, taken in Mont Tremblant 2009

After the successful 1977 season, Walter Wolf's plans for 1978 were aimed at winning the drivers' world championship. Jody Scheckter stayed on board as the driver. Wolf Racing was mostly a team with only one driver this season; The American Bobby Rahal was also used in the overseas races . In addition, the Theodore Racing team , which failed at the beginning of the season with its own car, fielded the Wolf WR4 for Keke Rosberg in the last European races of the year ; In 1980 the car drove for Theodore in the Aurora F1 Series.

The team contested the races of the first half of the season with the well-known WR1, without being able to build on the performance of the previous year. The best qualifying result was the 5th place on the grid at the Grand Prix of South Africa , which Scheckter was unable to utilize. In the race, he retired on lap 59 after a spin. At the Monaco Grand Prix , Scheckter brought the WR1 back to third place.

The newly designed Wolf WR5 appeared for the first time at the Spanish Grand Prix , the first Wolf designed for the ground effect. The WR5 was a one-off that "was quickly developed and quickly built". The handling of the car turned out to be problematic. Nevertheless, Scheckter managed to finish second in the German Grand Prix with the WR5 . The successor, the WR6, appeared at the Dutch Grand Prix . Postlethwaite had responded to the problems of the WR5 mainly with a larger track width; the coolers were also positioned differently. Wolf built two copies of the WR6. The first example was destroyed in an accident during its second use, the Italian Grand Prix in Monza. With the second car, Scheckter finished the Canadian Grand Prix in second place.

Bobby Rahal drove the Wolf WR5 at the US Grand Prix and finished 12th with it. In Canada , on the other hand, he had to move the outdated WR1, which failed in the race with a defect in the fuel system.

The team hadn't managed to win this season. After the last race, Scheckter left the team at the end of the season and went to Scuderia Ferrari , with which he won the drivers' world championship in 1979.

1979

Keke Rosberg with mechanics from the Wolf team at the Dino Ferrari Grand Prix 1979

As the successor to the South African was in 1979 the world champion of 1976 , James Hunt , obliged. In keeping with the current trend, Postlethwaite had built a modern wing car with which Wolf wanted to build on the success of 1977. Three copies were created, which were named WR7, WR8 and WR9. But it quickly became apparent that the new car was not fast enough and was very unreliable. Hunt threw in the towel after the Monaco Grand Prix without scoring a point and announced his retirement from motorsport. The team signed the meanwhile unemployed Keke Rosberg as Hunt's successor. But even Rosberg failed to turn things for the better; the team remained without points until the end of the season.

The costs on the one hand and the lack of success on the other made Walter Wolf lose his interest in racing. Without further ado, he sold his team, including the existing material (factory and cars), to the two-time world champion Emerson Fittipaldi and his brother Wilson , who merged it with their own Copersucar team and used the former Wolf factory as a new location to move from Brazil instead of the previous one to be able to operate from England now .

Numbers and dates

Statistics in Formula 1

season	Team name	chassis	engine	tires	Grand Prix	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Round	Points	World Cup rank
1976	Walter Wolf Racing	Williams FW05	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G	13	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1977	Walter Wolf Racing	Wolf WR1  /  WR2  /  WR3	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G	17th	3	2	4th	1	2	55	4th
1978	Walter Wolf Racing	Wolf WR1 / WR3 /  WR4  /  WR5  /  WR6	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G	16	-	2	2	-	-	24	5.
1979	Olympus Cameras Wolf Racing	Wolf WR7  /  WR8  /  WR9	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8	G	14th	-	-	-	-	-	-	14th
total					60	3	4th	6th	1	2	79

All drivers in the team

Surname	Years	Grand Prix	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Round	Points	best WM-Pos.
Jody Scheckter	1977-1988	33	3	4th	6th	1	2	79	2. ( 1977 )
Keke Rosberg	1978-1979	10	-	-	-	-	-	-	29th ( 1979 )
James Hunt	1979	7th	-	-	-	-	-	-	27. ( 1978 )
Michel Leclère	1976	6th	-	-	-	-	-	-	- ( 1976 )
Arturo Merzario	1976	6th	-	-	-	-	-	-	- ( 1976 )
Jacky Ickx	1976	4th	-	-	-	-	-	-	- ( 1976 )
Bobby Rahal	1978	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	33rd ( 1978 )
Warwick Brown	1976	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	- ( 1976 )
Hans Binder	1976	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	- ( 1976 )
Renzo Zorzi	1976	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	- ( 1976 )
Chris Amon	1976	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	18th ( 1976 )
total			3	4th	6th	1	2	79

Individual evidence

1. ↑ In Mike Lawrence's Frank Williams biography this season is titled On the point of collapse. See Mike Lawrence: Frank Williams. The inside story of the man behind Williams-Renault. P. 35 ff., 53.
2. ↑ David Hodges: Racing Cars from AZ after 1945, p. 266.
3. ^ Maurice Hamilton: Frank Williams, p. 57
4. ^ David Hodges: AZ of Grand Prix Cars 1906–2000, p. 108
5. ↑ Note on this at www.f1rejects.com in the context of Otto Stuppacher's biography ( memento of the original from October 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Maurice Hamilton: Frank Williams, p. 54
7. ^ David Hodges: AZ of Grand Prix Cars 1906–2000, p. 248

Web links

Commons : Walter Wolf Racing  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Information about Walter Wolf Racing and the Wolf WR1 with pictures (Engl.)